“She’s freezing. You sure I can’t warm her up?”

A coldtskhad me looking up at another man who hovered over me, and a cool trickle of fear iced down my spine. The master with the letter opener. The man who had handed me a letter opener to slice my palm to prove my divinity and sneered at the handkerchief I used to clean it. A neat black beard and bright amber eyes stood out against alabaster skin, and his clothing, though plain, was equally tidy.

“If you put your own beast of a child in her, he’ll have to wait. So, no. If you can’t control your vile urges, hand me the knife,” the man said. I couldn’t remember his name, wasn’t sure if I ever even knew it. But he was one of the two men who had stood alongside Filenti, forcing me to kill Miriam. “I know she can heal herself, but I don’t know if she could survive us cutting your spawn out of her to ready her for the king.”

A shiver wracked through me, the cold and fear creating a maelstrom of nervous movement through my body. The master smiled as he knelt beside me. Using his index finger to tilt my chin up, he chuckled before speaking.

“Filenti and Andron will be here soon, and we’ll be on our way. Andron will rift us.”

I glared at him as I tried to spit out the gag. The other man laughed and pressed the knife close enough I felt my skin break.

“Easy, Edrick. If she’s dead, she can’t carry a babe. Stop,” the master said.

“You said you’d pay me.”

“That was before you killed your wife. You made this harder on us.”

“She talked back to me.”

“You weren’t supposed to kill her. Just do enough harm to getherto return.”

I closed my eyes, leaning my head against the stone wall. Edrick pressed the dagger closer. I’d been set up; they’d been watching me. I sighed, and I felt a single tear roll down my cheek. It burned against my face, salty rage. I’d made a mistake. Perhaps Rain had been right in every choice he made when it came to me. Maybe Icouldn’tbe trusted to take care of myself.

Thyra and Dewalt were too recognizable. Hell, I’d made Elora dip her hair in brun root, and it had done nothing. I was stupid to think I could have blended in. My desire to do something blinded me—my desire to be useful. Elora needed space, Rain wouldn’t let me help him, and I was drowning in my guilt over the women I’d burned alive. Sway the balance toward good. That’s what I’d been attempting to do. What place needed more good done for it than the Wend? It had called out to me, and I felt the pull in my bones to do what I could there.

Though, I should have known better. No good deed, and all that. But I was reckless, and this was my fault. I hadn’t even thought to listen, to use my harrowing at the door, before I went into my patient’s home. My chest ached. Francine had died to trap me. Sorrow wrapped its way around my heart, and my insides clenched tight.

“The bitch deserved it. We got her, didn’t we?”

“And there are too many ways this can go wrong because of you now. Just one more time. That was all we needed.”

Anger lancing through me, my eyes whipped to Francine’s husband. The man who’d beaten his wife so severely, it was going to take me two visits to ensure she kept shoulder mobility. He was supposed to continue beating Francine, luring me back to heal her. A whisper of a shadow skimmed over my skin, down near my ankle, and I waited for the men to notice. I didn’t breathe, didn’t move, just let the shadow hover over my skin. I just needed a moment. A single moment, and I could use my divinity to kill them both.

Glancing between them, focusing on one another in the argument, I made my move. No longer listening to the men, I closed my eyes nearly all the way, letting them think I wasn’t paying attention. Instead, I willed my shadows to travel up Edrick’s leg, twining around his calf without touching him. I needed to make sure I’d have enough time to get away.

A few things happened in quick succession. Just as I was about to tighten my rein on the shadows, a door banged open in my periphery, light and snow pouring into the room. The storm had worsened significantly, the wind pushing the door wide. As my eyes rounded at the intrusion, the newcomer shouted, and the master in front of me had his own dagger to my throat.

“Drop them, now.”

I did the opposite, allowing the shadows to climb up Edrick’s body. He fell over, tugging at the bindings I’d created out of nothing—the act futile. I tested my limits, allowing the shadows to keep moving and sliding up around his neck. They needed my body, after all, to carry a baby. They wouldn’t hurt me.

The master in front of me pressed the dagger in farther, leaning in to whisper with hot, rancid breath on my ear. “I don’t care if you kill him. You turn the shadows on me though, and I’ll slice your neck open and fuck the hole it leaves. I’m not dying over you.”

He leaned back, staring at me with golden eyes. I let my own convey my message as I allowed my shadows to squeeze. Not breaking eye contact, I continued choking the man who laid at my feet. The master chuckled, allowing the blade to once more break my skin.

“She is not as confident as she seems. I can hear her heart racing,” the familiar voice said, moving farther into my line of sight.

Before I could act, I heard a rift open behind me, knocking me forward, and I grunted when a sharp pain rasped across my neck. My shadows dropped, and I would have gasped if I didn’t have the gag in my mouth. I watched, eyes wide, as blood sprayed out onto the dusty wooden floor below me. Instinct overtaking me, I rolled to my shoulder, just enough to draw my pinned arms up and press my hand to my neck, stopping the bleeding as I used every bit of my divinity to heal myself. Blood bubbled past my fingertips, my racing heart working against me. The fact I could still breathe told me the wound wasn’t deep, but gods, did the floor turn red all the same.

“Divine hell, Andron. You couldn’t have been more careful? Get the collar on her.”

Just as I finally caught my breath, the blood slowing as I panted, cool metal closed around my neck with a clang, and the touch of it on my skin burned. My breathing turned into a hiss, and I choked on it, coughing. Divinity stamped out, I knew obsidian was inlaid within the collar.

“Truly, could the lot of you have made this any more difficult? I think not.”

The cool, pinched voice of the master who forced me to stop a woman’s heart seared my mind.

I had high hopes you’d be successful.